August
8, 2003, 1200 PDT, (FTW) -- Wholesale
Enron-style looting of US taxpayer money on a scale that
threatens the stability and safety of every American
has prompted an historic alliance between activism, technology,
and financial expertise. A new interactive web site, www.whereisthemoney.org/,
now makes real, on a local level selected by each user,
the enormous amounts of money that have been stolen from
the US Treasury. It also makes clear that most of our
current problems---from energy shortages, to federal,
state and local budget deficits, to needed infrastructure
changes---could be addressed if the US government and
private corporations like Lockheed-Martin and CFC-DynCorp
were held accountable for their mishandling of taxpayer
money.

The
web site is a collaborative project between three disciplines
as represented by its creators:

The
importance of the issue, and why it must be injected
into every political debate from now on, is dramatically
emphasized by the political circus unfolding in California
which has been sparked by massive budget deficits, not
all of which are attributable to political mismanagement.If such a belief were true, then California
would be the only state facing such crises. Instead,
we see a nation sinking under red ink while trillions
of our dollars are missing.

Candidates
in the California recall race (and every American political
contest) must be held accountable for this unconscionable
theft of taxpayer money. This new web site makes it
possible for every American to relate cooked government
books
and stolen money to the quality of life in their home
state and to translate that loss into what it means
in terms of education, health care and energy issues.
The
site also includes an interactive electronic petition
where the American people can put their feet down and
demand accountability, which is both their right and
obligation under the Constitution.

It
is not a case where the people "can" make the
politicians listen. It is a case where the people "must"
make the politicians change.

The
"whereisthemoney" web
site makes a point of the cost of conversion of oil-
powered vehicles to natural gas. FTW must
emphasize that irreversible natural gas shortages in
North America and worldwide make such a move both impossible
and inadvisable. But, as a teaching point, the figures
are astounding. This example highlights the money that
might be available to develop biodiesel fuels or to facilitate
the essential infrastructure changes required to develop,
for example, hybrid and solar technologies that will
soften the growing impact and reality of Peak Oil and
Gas. These challenges are only going to get worse.

What
is so amazing about this web site is that its head-spinning,
rolling dollar counters, adjustable for all 50 states,
focus on only about $1.5 trillion of missing taxpayer
money and do not include an additional $2.3 trillion
in money admittedly "missing" from the Pentagon
for FY 1999.

Asked
why the site did not include the additional $2.3 trillion
in DoD funds, Fitts replied, "We wanted to use a number
from an administration cross-over year where it was absolutely
clear that this was a bi-partisan issue rather than something
that could be dismissed or buried as the fault of only
one party rather than a system. The figures, as presented,
are amazing enough and they present a challenge to lawmakers
at every level that cannot be dodged by pointing the
finger at someone else."